Music: Eclectic Ari Hest coming to Scituate

Tuesday

Feb 14, 2017 at 12:42 PMFeb 19, 2017 at 6:27 PM

By Chad Berndtson/For The Patriot Ledger

Acclaimed singer-songwriter Ari Hest has been making the South Shore an annual tour stop for some years now, and there’s a good reason for that: local singer and Marshfield native Chrissi Poland, one of Hest’s frequent musical collaborators, is also his wife.

“It’s a community I know pretty well now,” Hest said ahead of Friday’s return to the River Club Music Hall in Scituate, where he’ll be on a bill with Poland as part of their jazzy, soulful duo, Bluebirds of Paradise. “It’s always a nice thing to do, and a lot of people in that community know her family very well.”

Hest and Poland met in London five years ago on a co-bill featuring several solo acts, and were introduced by a mutual friend. They live in Jersey City, N.J., now but were married in Cohasset and keep close ties to the area, where much of Poland’s family and friends still reside.

“We just hit it off — musically as well as in life,” Hest says. “We started to write songs together and contributed a lot to each other’s projects. We haven’t had a chance to perform in this combination too often, so any time we get a chance to do this it’s great.”

Hest, 37, hails from New York City, and came onto the national radar around 2004, building a fanbase primarily among colleges and universities across the U.S.

Back then he was more of a rocker with a down-to-earth folkie streak, but over the years, his music’s become richer and more introspective. He’s more Club Passim – referring to the Cambridge folk music temple where Hest regularly performs – than sweaty rock club these days.

“I think it came from just getting comfortable with my personality,” he said. “By the time I hit my late 20s, I realized I wasn’t really a rock guy. I prefer to be on the quiet side and the mellow side – it suits me better and that’s the energy that feels best to me. I can say it without being frantic or loud. I have a quiet personality and this is how I best connect.”

Longtime Hest fans can hear that evolution over the albums he released between 2009 and 2015, including “Twelve Mondays,” “Sunset Over Hope Street,” “The Fire Plays” and “Shouts and Whispers.” A number of Hest song’s from this more recent period have been used in movies and TV shows.

He’s also continued to collaborate with other artists, including the legendary singer Judy Collins, with whom Hest released a Grammy-nominated album of duets called “Silver Skies Blue” in 2016.

Along with Bluebirds of Paradise, Hest also works with Israeli singer-songwriter Rosi Golan, and many others. Fans attending in Scituate should expect to hear a range of material, including some of Hest’s work from the Collins album.

Hest has had a good relationship with Boston, and recalls playing the original House of Blues in Cambridge, as well as Boston rock standby the Paradise, as he started to get noticed and signed his first record deal more than a decade ago. He’s up here often for family and for business; after the Scituate show he plays Saturday with Poland at the Center for the Arts in Arlington, and he’ll be returning to Club Passim on April 14.

“I had a lot of support up there early on,” Hest says. “It’s a great scene and it feels like home.”